Risk and vulnerability indicators at different scales:: Applicability, usefulness and policy implications

This paper outlines selected approaches to measuring risk and vulnerability to hazards of natural origin using indicators and indices. It discusses their applicability, usefulness and policy implications. Indicators and indices have been developed on different scales and for different purposes. The paper will briefly introduce three global approaches to disaster-risk identification and will juxtapose them with one local approach in order to examine the differences concerning the functions and the purpose of the assessment as well as their impact for policy development. In contrast to an earlier comparative analysis of the three global disaster-risk indicator programmes by Mark Pelling in 2004, which focused primarily on the methodologies used, this paper places more emphasis on aspects of applicability and policy implications and outlines challenges and limitations of the different approaches. Since the assessment and mapping of human vulnerability is less developed than hazard assessment work [Pelling M., 2004. Visions of Risk: A Review of International Indicators of Disaster Risk and its Management. UNDP—Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BRCP), Geneva], this paper focuses in greater depth on how the approaches capture vulnerability. Conclusions will be formulated on how to further enhance vulnerability identification, particularly at the sub-national level.     

灾害熵：概念引入及应用案例

某一区域的灾害风险反映珠不确定性。据此,本文采用信息熵的理论与方法,引入了区域灾害熵和区域灾害加权熵概念,并给出了相应的计算公式。选取山东省作为应用案例研究的区域,利用了１９４９￣１９９４年旱灾、洪涝灾害受灾面积资料计算了旱灾、洪涝灾害的区域熵和区域灾害加权熵。研究结果表明,区域灾害加权熵可以作为表征区域灾害风险整体水平的一个综合指标。本文给出了区域灾害熵计算方法简便易行。     

结核病及其防治

结核病是危害人类健康的传染性疾病。它是一个严重的公共卫生问题,影响着社会经济发展。     

Humanitarian action and military intervention: temptations and possibilities

Although the war in Liberia in July 2003 claimed hundreds of lives, the international community was reluctant to intervene. In this article, the author debates the question: does international military intervention equal protection of populations? The role of humanitarian organisations in military intervention is considered. Aid organisations cannot call for deployment of a protection force without renouncing their autonomy or appealing to references outside their own practices. Such organisations provide victims with vital assistance and contribute to ensuring that their fate becomes a stake in political debate by exposing the violence that engulfs them, without substituting their own voices for those of the victims. The political content of humanitarian action is also outlined and military intervention in the context of genocide is discussed. The author concludes that the latter is one of the rare situations in which humanitarian actors can consider calling for an armed intervention without renouncing their own logic.     

Hurricanes and agriculture: Losses and remedial actions*

Hurricanes cause serious and long-term damage to the Agricultural sectors of Caribbean countries. Bananas and tree crops are defoliated, snapped or uprooted and food crops may be flooded or washed away. Recovery takes time and money as both the production bases and the infrastructure are damaged or destroyed. National economies do not have the resources to expedite recovery without aid. An account is given of the actions taken to estimate losses and prepare rehabilitation plans after Hurricanes David (1979) in Dominica and Allen (1980) in St. Lucia and St. Vincent. The implementation of funding agency-assisted agricultural rehabilitation programmes is also described. Some steps that farmers can take to reduce loss of food are suggested.     

Military Intervention and Humanitarian Action: Trends and Issues

An important trend in military doctrine for so-called 'peace support operations' has been to place them on a spectrum that includes coercion and enforcement. This paper focuses on British writers of doctrine as those responsible for driving the debate forward and forging a consensus among leading military powers. Their discourse is combat oriented, a fact reinforced by a trend towards strategic subcontracting to coalitions of the militarily willing and able. At the same time, there has been a move to institutionalise the involvement of military forces in relief, peace building and development activities. The overall emphasis is on stability and security to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief and to establish the conditions for peace-building processes. In the case of Bosnia, this involves conditionality and economic leverage. Although there is a long-established record of peace-keeping forces engaging in goodwill activities (with mixed results), the current trends contain contradictions that seem likely to contribute to the widely perceived erosion of classical humanitarian principles.     

防震救灾：高科技之路

高新技术在防震减灾事业中的作用与地位．在1999年8月17日土耳其7.4级地震抗震救灾中大显身手．充分显示出威力和作用．使我们在抢险救灾时面对被埋压人员的用境和无奈时看到了希望．得到解脱。从中醒悟到,科学技术是防震减灾的重要手段．是推动减灾事业发展的推动力。在防灾上．科技含量越高．伤亡人数就会越少;在救灾上,高科技手段越多．从死亡边缘拉回来的人就越多。在2008年四川汶川大地震抗震救灾中．卫星遥感等先进技术也发挥突出的作用．为抢救人民生命财产赢得了时间．提供准确的信息支持。     

幽深的蓝色墓穴——龙三角

自20世纪40年代以来,无数臣轮在日本以南空旷清冷的海面上神秘失踪,它们中的大多数在失踪前都没能发出求救讯号,也没有任何线索可以解答它们失踪后的相关命运。如在地图上标出这片海域的范围,它恰恰是一个与百慕大极为相似的三角区域,这就是令人恐惧的日本龙三角.     

洪水:避险与自救

<正>2100年入夏以来,我国南方数省市暴雨肆虐,6月21日傍晚,一个使人震惊的消息通过电视、广播和各种媒体迅速传遍全国,江西省境内的第二大河抚河抚州市唱凯堤发生决口,威胁下游临川区湖南、罗湖、唱凯、罗针和云山等5个乡镇14.5万人口,以及京福高速公路、316国道和12万亩粮田的安全。为此,一场抗洪抢险的战斗     

自然灾害的释义及伦理省思——人类中心主义的反思和修正

随着人类的活动深刻地改变着自然界，自然灾害的频繁发生已成为现代生态环境的常态，而人类对于自身对自然灾害的发生应采取什么样的态度，承担什么样的义务和责任，还没有深刻的认识。从自然灾害的释义学角度入手，结合对灾害不同认识的理论背景，分析了自然灾害的人为致因，依据客观的灾害史，指出了人类中心主义的极端功利化对自然灾害频发的罪责，并提出应从生态伦理学探讨了人类中心主义的内在文化根源，借助对理性主义的分析，揭示了人类中心主义发展的内在逻辑，继而。结合现代生态伦理学对人类中心主义的批判，对人类中心主义进行了反思和修正。